•5> 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  V^OMEN'S  NATIONAL  INDIAN 
ASSOCIATION. 


OUR  WORK. 

The  churches  have  done  a great 
work  among  United  States  Indians. 
They  could  not,  however,  provide 
religious  teaching  for  all,  and  so  The 
Women’s  National  Indian  Association, 
a union  society,  finding  sixty-six 
tribes  and  separated  parts  of  tribes 
without  a mission,  after  its  five  years 
of  other  work  began  in  1884  to  send 
missionaries  to  these  destitute  tribes. 
The  effort  succeeded  beyond  expecta- 
tion and  work  has  been  opened  for 
forty-seven  tribes  or  stations. 

These  missions  when  well  establish- 
ed are  given,  with  all  the  property 
gathered,  to  the  denominational  Home 
Missionary  Societies  and  become  their 
permanent  stations.  It  needs  at 
least  twenty-five  new  ones  to  sup- 
ply all  the  destitute  tribes,  and  the 


Association  appeals  to  all  Christian 
patriots  for  gifts  in  aid  of  this  work. 
Please  send  what  you  can,  oh  Chris- 
tian reader,  and  move  others  to  do  the 
same,  even  if  the  gift  can  be  not  more 
than  a dime.  The  wee  gifts  make 
possible  the  great  enterprises,  and  it  is 
the  pioneering  that  assures  the  per- 
manent work. 

Has  this  work  accomplished  much  ? 
At  a point  in  upper  California  one  of 
our  missions  was  begun  in  1890  with  a 
day  school  of  twelve  pupils  among 
the  so-called  Digger  Indians,  and  they 
proved  to  be  as  well  endowed  by 
nature  as  are  any  untaught  people. 
The  school  progressed  steadily  till  1896 
when,  having  outgrown  the  financial 
ability  of  the  Association,  it  was  sold 
to  Government,  a boarding  school  of 
eighty  pupils,  with  its  temporary 
buildings  on  its  forty  acres,  and  it  is 
now  a permanent  institution  in  build- 
ings costing  ^25,000.00.  In  1893  our 


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mission  was  opened  among  the  two 
thousand  Piegans  of  Montana  and  in 
less  than  two  years,  with  its  hundred 
and  sixty  acres,  its  ample  cottage,  its 
pretty  new  chapel,  its  stock,  vehicles, 
and  furniture  it  was  given  to  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Home  Mission 
Society  and  became  its  best  frontier 
mission,  its  property  having  cost  $4000. 
In  1896  our  unique  mission  was  opened 
among  the  Desert  Indians  of  Califor- 
nia, and  the  next  year,  with  its  five 
acres  and  its  cottage  and  chapel,  it 
was  given  to  the  devoted  Moravians. 
And  so  might  be  given  the  story  of  a 
Sioux  station,  now  an  Episopal  mis- 
sion ; of  Seminole  work  now  under 
that  same  church  care  ; of  work  among 
tribes  in  Indian  Territory,  in  Idaho, 
Nebraska,  Arizona,  Washington  and 
New  Mexico,  and  the  details,  and  per- 
sonal history  of  Tnaiiy  of  those  helped 
would  thrill  the  coldest  heart. 

Boys  have  walked,  through  moun- 


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tain  snows,  seven  miles  a day  to  get 
our  school  privileges,  and  some  have 
done  this  without  lunch  or  with  only 
a cold  potato  for  the  noon  meal ; some 
in  place  of  shoes  have  had  only  grain 
sacks  wrapped  about  the  feet,  and 
some  have  dwelt  in  tents  the  winter 
through  where  the  mercury  often 
dropped  to  forty  degrees  below  zero. 
A singing  procession  of  school  children 
has  marched  into  an  Indian  hamlet, 
their  sweet  gospel  hymns  winning 
from  heathen  dances,  and  from  super- 
stitious fear  of  the  school  to  hearty 
support  of  it.  Dying  Indian  children 
have  said,  “ I go  to  the  better  country 
and  Jesus  will  take  me”;  hungry 
minded  ones  have  said,  “ I must  know 
book,”  and  Indian  men  and  women 
have  found  Him  who  is  truly  the 
need  as  “the  desire  of  all  nations.” 

^ The  Association  has  other  than  mis- 
• sionary  departments;  does  not  dupli- 
cate the  work  of  any  society,  and  was 


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the  first  Indian  association  to  ask  for 
lands  in  severalty  and  citizenship  for 
Indians,  as  it  did  in  its  third  annual 
petition,  that  of  i88i,  and  these  were 
granted  in  the  passage  of  The  Dawes 
Severalty  Bill  in  1887. 

The  great  revolution  in  public  sen- 
timent which  has  swept  over  the  coun- 
try since  the  beginning  of  this  work 
in  the  spring  of  1879  has  already  given 
us  about  25,000  Indian  citizen  voters  ; 
35,000  Indian  tax  payers;  industrial 
products  of  Indian  labor  at  an  annual 
value  of  more  than  $1,250,000;  has 
secured  to  date  nearly  three  hundred 
Indian  schools  of  all  kinds,  at  an 
annual  expense  of  more  than  $2,000,- 
000,  now  giving  educational  privi- 
leges to  three-fourths  of  the  Indian 
youth  of  the  country,  and  has  roused 
the  great  denominations  of  Christians 
to  increased  labors  for  Christianizing 
our  aborigines. 

This  Association  has  given  special 


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education  to  bright  Indians,  training 
them  as  physicians,  nurses,  teachers 
and  missionaries  to  help  and  lead  their 
people.  It  has  built  houses  from  its 
loan  funds  thus  placing  many  Indian 
families  in  civilized  and  Christian 
homes,  and  these  loans  are  honestly 
repaid.  It  has  hospital,  library,  in- 
dustries, temperence,  and  kindergar- 
ten departments,  and  has  built  mis- 
sionary cottages,  chapels,  school- 
houses,  and  homes  for  the  aged. 

For  all  these  aids  there  is  still  con- 
stant and  importunate  need,  and  re- 
quest, and  most  of  these  the  denomina- 
tional societies  do  not,  and,  they  tell  us, 
cannot,  supply.  The  Association  has 
expended  from  twenty  thousand  to 
twenty-eight  thousand  dollars  yearly, 
and  about  $3,000  annually  in  sending 
material  help  to  aged  and  otherwise 
helpless  ones  in  more  than  seventy 
different  tribes. 

Besides  all  these  helps  required 
there  are  wrongs  to  right,  laws  to 
gain,  and  just  privileges  to  secure  for 
our  native  race,  and  the  need  of  all 
these  appeals  alike  to  us  all  as  patriots 


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and  as  Christians.  The  Association 
making  this  request,  and  its  branches 
in  many  states,  have  published  and 
circulated  many  thousands  of  booklets 
and  leaflets;  have  sent  many  thousands 
of  petitions  and  appeals  to  our  Govern- 
ment; have  held  thousands  of  meet- 
ings, and  have  championed  the  cause 
of  the  red  man  in  the  public  press 
since  1879. 

May  we  not  enroll  your  name  on 
our  honor  list  of  helpers  ? 

A gift  of  $50,  constitutes  an  Hon- 
orary Member;  of  $25,  a Patron;  of 
$10.  a Contributor,  or,  if  from  a lady, 
a Life  Member;  of  $5,  or  $1.00  a Sub- 
scriber or  Donor;  and  any  gift  how- 
ever small  will  be  gladly  welcomed 
for  this  work  on  behalf  of  the  thou- 
sands of  our  aboriginal  race  who  are 
still  helpless,  uncivilized,  and  un- 
Christianized  in  this  last  year  of  the 
nineteenth  Christian  century. 

Mrs.  Amelia  S.  Quinton,  Pres. 

Miss  E.  W.  Jones,  Cor.  Secretary 

Miss  Anna  Bennet,  Treas, 

210.5  Spruce  St.,  Phila.,  Pa. 


OKKICERS 


OF  THE 

WOMEN’S  NATIONAL  INDIAN  ASSOCIATION 

For  1899 

HONORARY  PRESIDENT 

MRS  MARY  L.  BONNEV  RAMBAOT 

PRESIDENT 

MRS.  AMELIA  S.  QUINTON 
Philadelphia 

VICE-PRESIDENTS 

MRS.  W.  R.  BROOKS 
MRS.  SARA  T.  KINNEY 
MRS.  E.  JOHN  ELLIS 
MRS.  JOHN  BIDWELL 

CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY 
MISS  ELIZA  WILLIAMS  JONES 
2031  Diamond  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

RECORDING  SECRETARY 

MRS.  WM.  H.  LAIRD 

TREASURER 

MISS  ANNA  BENNETT 
2105  Spruce  St.,  Philadelphia 

AUDITOR  OF  ACCOUNTS 

MRS.  C.  G.  BOUGHTON 


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